Comments on: You Only Know What You Measure

By: Why I do Time Tracking | Swaroop C H - India, Technology, Life Skills

Why I do Time Tracking | Swaroop C H - India, Technology, Life Skills — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:20:51 +0000

[...] The whole article is worth reading. The premise of all this is that you only know what you measure. [...]

By: dj

dj — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:28:16 +0000

I thought everyone used Quicken, spreadsheet, or some Open Source software to record their income and expenses, before that, wasn’t it one’s checkbook register. How do you know where you stand, + or -, if you don’t.

I recently started using a combination of Open Project and Kontact (PIM) to organize and prioritize. This may sound odd, but I got rid of all my “motivational” material and media. Whether it was Robbins, Ziglar, Covey, etc, it didn’t matter (Although I kept The One Minute Manager), and it feels great

By: » The Power of Measurement Youngdough.com: a college kid’s journey to financial freedom…

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:44:20 +0000

[...] Young, easily one of my favorite bloggers on the net, recently published an article titled ‘You Only Know What You Measure‘. Essentially, he illustrates the strong correlation between taking the time to record [...]

By: Scott Young

Scott Young — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 17:55:18 +0000

Shradha,

Motivation is important, I’ll agree. But beyond a certain point, there’s a limit to how much control you have over willpower and how it creates results. Even if I really want to get in shape, getting “pumped up” or using willpower will only go so far. Getting a great strategy to stick to going to the gym and pushing my workout is more effective.

-Scott

By: Shradha

Shradha — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:46:42 +0000

Enjoyed the post. I agree that writing down your goals is a powerful motivator, and I myself write down goals regularly. However, I would disagree with the statement “Reaching a target has a lot more to do with strategy than feats of willpower.” If, from the beginning, you are not pursuing a goal wholeheartedly and aren’t committed to it, you can write it down over and over again but it won’t make much of a difference. Willpower will get you a lot further in life, then simply writing things down. Measurement will help keep you motivated in continuing to pursue a goal, but if you are not self-disciplined and cannot control your behaviour, then you will never start working towards your goal in the first place.

By: J.D. Meier

J.D. Meier — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 07:41:45 +0000

The value of the measurement is the value of the feedback.

I find a lot of people give up because they didn’t find a way to speed up their learning loop or get some sort of positive reinforcement they are heading in the right direction, or a sign that they have to correct course.

By: Mike Walzman

Mike Walzman — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 05:25:53 +0000

I agree with you on the writing. When I leave my to do list in my head, I have a thousand other thoughts roaming in there and everything just gets jumbled up and my day is now out of wack. But when I write it out and prioritize the tasks, my day is a lot smoother and I get a lot less headaches. I also like to commit to others that I will get a task done, because left to my own devices to do a task that I’ve been dreading and I’ll probably think of some way out of it. But when I commit to someone before the task and then tell them to call me or I’ll call them after I’m done, keeps me more accountable.

By: Shanel Yang

Shanel Yang — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:30:47 +0000

The simple act of writing it down is also an important step: signaling the seriousness of the commitment to that particular goal to yourself. If you can’t commit to writing down your goal and keeping daily track of your progress, you don’t really want to change that bad habit into a good one. And, that’s too bad because it’s so easy once you do it this way. It’s practically fool-proof! You’ll get addicted to fixing all your bad habits this way. But, remember to stick to just one at a time. Or else it starts to become not so easy. Good luck! : )

By: Elliott at Good Plum

Elliott at Good Plum — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:02:59 +0000

Scott, great post. To add something to the willpower section, aside from strategy, I think the aura of willpower is attained by belief. Until you truly believe in something (yourself, ability, etc.) – all the self-discipline in the world won’t help you.

@iElliott